Christina was an A student and was interested in politics, so her mother accepted the offer by her friend Susan Hileman to take Christina to the congresswoman’s town hall meeting. John Green told the Arizona Star-News that Christina was such a good speaker, “I could have easily seen her as a politician.”

But Christina also seems to have inherited her family’s baseball genes. She was on the Little League baseball team, its only girl, her mother said.

“She was an athlete, a good dancer, a good gymnast, a good swimmer,” her mother said. “She belonged to Kids Helping Kids charity and tried to help children less fortunate.”

Christina, a slender girl with brownish blonde hair, brown eyes and a gentle smile, also sang in the choir at St. Odilia Roman Catholic Church. At home she took care of pet geckos, but loved frolicking with the dogs and cats of neighbors and friends. In the big-dreams way of children, she told her mother she wanted to be a veterinarian and study at an eastern school like New York University.

If I'd been that friendly neighbor, I don't know how I'd overcome the guilt of taking Christina to that event. Of course there's no blame there, and no rational cause for guilt, but I'd feel guilty all the same.

Althouse - the little girl has a Delware connection. Her grandfather is Dallas Green and he wass GM of the Phillies in 1980 when they won their 1st World series. He was born in Delware I believe, played for the Phils in te 60's and went on to be part of the Carpenter organization which owned the Phils for 30 years or so. The Carpenters were a wealthy family from Delware {Bob and his son, Ruly]. Ruly is about your age I bet.

I cannot comprehend the level of evil that would point a gun at an innocent child.

That said, I would have to disagree with September 11 being a holiday "because it gave hope and everyone came together." This would be like saying that December 7, 1941 "gave hope and everyone came together." Both days were days of infamy. While everyone did come together in the aftermath, the dominant emotions were sorrow for the fallen and righteous anger at the evil perpetrators, not hope. One would not expect a nine-year-old who was born on that terrible day to know that. Those of us who were adults at the time, however, cannot forget.

Trooper-I will pray for her family, but most of my prayers are for the people trying to score points from this and for the country they're destroying with their idiocy. They need our prayers much more than this little girl who is now in heaven.

Do the people trying to pin this horrible act by a crazed loon on the "other side" not see how it all ends? I joked to my wife during 2008 that it might be the last presidential campaign we ever witness (no matter the winner). I can't really laugh when I say that anymore.

I've read that Phelps plans to protest at the funeral. Surely Tucson's citizens will organize to -- lawfully -- keep them as far away from the family's sight as possible. And, keep them off camera, too.

write_effort said...I've read that Phelps plans to protest at the funeral. Surely Tucson's citizens will organize to -- lawfully -- keep them as far away from the family's sight as possible. And, keep them off camera, too.

WHY!! WHAT A BUNCH OF TYRANTS..THEY BETTER NOT..SHE WAS AN INNOCENT CHILD.